Tag: Media

Dhurandhar Review

December 22, 2025 15 Comments filed under Omar Ali

I finally saw the movie in a theater in central California (almost houseful) and here are my thoughts:

4 out of 5 stars.

Genre: Inglorious Basterds. This is a revenge fantasy. The Indian state did not (publicly) take revenge for the Kandahar Hijack, the parliament attack or the Mumbai attack. This bothers “Nationalist Indians” and one of them decided to make a fantasy movie about revenge being taken.. And he did a good job.

Storyline: Fantasy about an Indian super-agent sent to infiltrate Pakistani terrorist networks, ends up in Lyari in the most notorious criminal gangs in Pakistan, who turn out to be tangentially involved in Pakistani-sponsored terrorism (none of this has any connection with reality). Mumbai attacks make an appearance and that is the part of the movie that is closest to reality; the attackers did train in Karachi, the attacks really happened and they really did get massacre instructions over the internet during their “mission”. Whether Khanani was involved or not, I have no clue, but someone like him probably was involved in the overall jihad efforts, so those parts are not just fantasy. The role assigned to the Lyari gangs is pure fantasy though.

The rest is of course ALL fantasy. But as a movie, it works very well, as long as you keep in mind that this is a revenge fantasy on the lines of Inglorious Basterds, not some kind of historical movie or documentary. The love angle is the silliest part of the story, but it IS a fantasy and it’s a bollywood movie, so hardly unexpected.

The movie itself works very well as a movie. The stars all deliver good performances, and Akshay Khanna definitely steals the show. His portrayal of Rahman Dakait will live long and prosper. And Akshay is now a legit superstar in Lyari (you can check out reels from there to confirm this) and will be mobbed and much loved if he shows up there. Sanjay Dutt as SP Choudhry Aslam is outstanding and Ranveer does a good job as the hero.

The music is simply outstanding. The background score worked VERY well in the theater (so see with good speakers if you can) and the songs are all excellent and fit in well with the movie.

It is very much an anti-Pakistan movie, so I dont think patriotic Pakistanis will enjoy it too much, but if you are a normal working class Pakistani you can enjoy it and if you are from Lyari you will likely watch it again. With direct attacks on Pakistan as the world center of terrorism and thinly disguised portrayals of Asif Zardari and Nabil Gabol, it is absolutely no surprise that this was banned in UAE as well. In fact, ISPR will surely make a revenge fantasy of their own now (it will be mostly AI slop, but some actors will get such over the top dialogs that they will be entertaining, and some music may be good, that is my prediction about the revenge movie, and I am very sure it will get funded, but it will not match Bollywood in tech or production; my confidence that it WILL be made comes from the simple fact that the Pakistani deep state is VERY obsessed with making sure we always have a tit for every tat.. in this we are somewhat different from India, but closer to the world average).

Why did Dhar mix Lyari up in this story? And was that a good idea? I think he mixed in lyari because Lyari gang wars are fantastic movie material and even if there was no real connection with the anti-Indian terrorism, for a movie it was a good element to fit into the story. Those gangsters mostly did die horrible deaths in real life and this too fits in well with the fantasy story, but it is worth keeping in mind that this connection is almost certainly fictional (if anything, some of them were working for foreign agencies, for example Uzair Baloch was formally accused of working with Iranian intelligence).

I will make a prediction about Dhurandhar part 2. I think they will get many or most of the figures shown in this movie to be killed in the next one as revenge by “unknown gunmen”, though in real life the unknown gunmen have not struck down any of the big fish till now.

That this revenge fantasy got a LOT Of pushback from Indian reviewers and critics (on the basis that it shows Pakistan too negatively and is too jingoistic) is a tribute to the naivete and innocence of the reviewers and the ecosystem they live in. We Pakistanis had no idea we have so many friends in India 🙂

Overall: well worth a watch. Three hours do fly past. It is very well made and most people will find it enjoyable, but patriotic Pakistanis may want to avoid it if such things raise their BP.

These are a couple of videos about the reality of the Lyari gangs and how this movie is playing there.

Pakistani review of Dhurandhar

December 15, 2025 No Comments filed under sbarrkum

Came across this review of Dhurandhar and thought it was worth sharing. Especially given the repeated comments on “bias and anti-Pakistan” from folks who haven’t even watched it.

I watched it this past weekend, and will try and find time to compile my thoughts on it as a comment on this post.

Dhurandhar showcases Bollywood’s New Obsession: The Sexy Pakistani Villain

December 12, 2025 16 Comments filed under X.T.M

We watched Dhurandhar last night at Apple Cinemas (the last time we went to see Ishaan Khatter’s Homebound). It is the best mass-market Bollywood film I’ve seen since Animal, and far more immersive. What struck me most was not the action, nor the plot, but Bollywood’s new formula: a full-scale fetishisation of Pakistan.

Kabir keeps claiming that Bollywood casts Pakistanis as villains. This misses the point. The villain is always the sexiest figure in any film. Bollywood has finally realised this. Raazi hinted at it. Animal stumbled on it with Bobby Deol’s star stealing turn. Dhurandhar perfects it.

For the first time, Hindu actors are not performing cartoon versions of Pakistan. They are cosplaying Pakistanis with forensic precision; the clothes, the diction, the swagger, the social codes. In earlier decades the attempt was clumsy. Now the calibration is exact. Pakistan, in these films, becomes the Wild West of the subcontinent: familiar enough to feel intimate, distant enough to feel dangerous. Continue reading Dhurandhar showcases Bollywood’s New Obsession: The Sexy Pakistani Villain

Notes From the Backend

December 6, 2025 1 Comment filed under X.T.M

Traffic has slowed a bit, and instead of trying to force momentum, I’ve gone into backend mode. When the front-end quiets, the only sensible response is to strengthen the foundations. That’s where all my energy has gone this week.

1. The theme is fighting me.

I’ve been stuck on a simple problem: author name, date, and comment count are not appearing under the post title.This is basic metadata. It should be visible. Instead, it’s buried at the bottom of every post. I mentioned this on WhatsApp; Furqan said the alternative theme I was looking at “looks archaic.” Fair. And yet the current setup is forcing my hand. To fix this I may need to build a child theme, which is technically more involved, but necessary if we want BP to look and function like a proper archive rather than a hobby blog. These are small details, but they shape usability.

2. Categories finally make sense. Continue reading Notes From the Backend

On “The Haraam Bit”: Free Speech, Trolling, and Our Red Lines

November 29, 2025 43 Comments filed under Bombay Badshah

This post titled “The ‘haraam’ bit” sparked pushback both on the site and in our internal chat. This note sets out the problem, our editorial responsibility (as X.T.M I have overwritten this post), and what this means for BP.

1. What happened

An anonymous author (Bombay Badshah who has used a number of pseudonyms) posted a list of Pakistani-origin porn performers and highlighted a scene where a British Pakistani actress jokes about “haraam” and foreskin. He framed it as an “interesting observation.” The issue was not that he mentioned porn. It was how he used it.

2. Why the post was unacceptable Continue reading On “The Haraam Bit”: Free Speech, Trolling, and Our Red Lines

Note on Moderation

November 26, 2025 3 Comments filed under Nachiketa

In light of Omar stepping down from active management of BP, i wanted to share this note. As I have immense respect and gratitude towards Omar I wouldn’t want the brand he and others have built up (and i have contributed a bit) over last decade and half to just go downhill. Despite the success of Substack and X (and video platforms) I feel the BP blog presents nice niche with its moderate reach and past history of extremely insightful authors and commentators – I feel BP is a community/blog worth maintaining into the coming years (and hopefully decades).

Given the recent fracas on the blog and in between its authors and commentators, I think we ought to indulge in some moderation – how much is the question that can only be addressed as we go ahead.

In light of this i hope to:

  1. Write a bit more frequently on the blog.
  2. Moderate comments (not every day) and weed out filthy content which crosses a certain red line. I generally tend to be pretty liberal with my tolerance for free speech so i hope i do not indulge in too much censoring. XTM can take his call – everyone sees moderation different and being the admin and founder – his authority on moderation (along with Razib) will be the final call. But i know even he is pretty liberal with respect to comments.
  3. Where i think reasonable standards will apply viz commenting are BP authors. It lowers the Brand of Brown pundits if people who are authors on this platform indulge in trollish and racist behavior. All always authors can moderate their threads as they deep fit instead of indulging in shitposting with trollish comments. If someone wants to have a banter in comments I hope they remember this line. I am in no way an authority but i think what i have written here wrt different standards for authors makes sense.

As I have mentioned above I do have pretty liberal standards with speech. Giving a concrete example – I did not find the jibe “subhuman” or jibe as Elitist/Islamist/Brahmanical/Fascist (ideological) as crossing a Red-Line in general. Context is important and one off comment of such nature doesn’t alarm me (It might be a redline for someone else i do not disagree) – even if directed at me. After all isnt a Troll also a subhuman ? but we are fine to call people we disagree with as low IQ trolls all the time without getting offended. Having said this – different standards ought to apply to authors but i would leave it to XTM (though i would drop him a line)

I hope i am able to stay regularly active on this space as and when time permits. As XTM has said multiple times, moderating in a thankless mandate and i hope i can slightly reduce his burden going forward.

Blog Management (or lack of it, on my part)

November 24, 2025 No Comments filed under Omar Ali

This blog was created by Razib Khan and I joined it shortly afterwards. It has gone through some changes over time. For a period, I was the only “administrator” active on it, but I have not been devoting much time to it recently. As a result the blog had become rather inactive, but recently one of our early “founders” (XTM) has come back and taken a more active role in the blog and has revived activity on it.

Unfortunately, there were some clashes between authors and commentators recently and I am afraid that such has been my lack of attention that I have not even read most of the posts in question. So I think it is time to face the facts and admit that I am not going to be able to take a more active role and should therefore withdraw from responsibilities I am not able to fulfil. I hope to remain an author here and I hope to do more podcasts as well. Razib and whoever he designates/invites/allows will continue to run the blog and I wish them the best. I hope it remains a place where diverse voices from the Indian subcontinent can continue to debate the issues that are important for people of Indian origin (and people in general) all over the world.

I hope the authors I brought on will continue to write and comment as well.

How many fires are there, how many suns?

How many dawns? How many waters?

I ask this, O fathers, not to challenge.

O Sages, I ask it to know

(RigVeda Book 10, hymn 88)

Why Brown Pundits Needs a Spine, Not a Consensus

November 23, 2025 14 Comments filed under X.T.M

As Brown Pundits returns to a steadier rhythm, I want to clarify a few things that have come up during the recent arguments, walkouts, and personal attacks. The charge that the blog “leans” one way or another has become common: some say it is too Saffron, others say it is anti-Indian. This is predictable. It is also wrong.

My decisions as Admin have never been based on political alignment. They come from something deeper:

the civilizational context of the speaker.

There is a difference between criticism that comes from within a tradition, and criticism that comes from outside it. A Dharmic voice attacking India or Hindu society is part of an internal quarrel; a family fight inside a civilizational frame. I treat that as internal dissent, even when I disagree with most of it.

A critique that comes from an Abrahamic frame reads very differently. I know that worldview well. I know its instincts, its myths of moral supremacy, its rhetorical tricks, and its hostility to plural traditions. So I scrutinize it more closely.

That is not bias. That is context.

This also explains why some people were frustrated about moderation choices. But the real problem was simpler: for several months, the editors were not doing their job. Delegation failed. Moderation failed. Oversight failed. This strained the entire comment ecosystem and created the conditions for an outrage cycle.

The recent Sri Lanka post is a perfect example of what the blog should highlight. It captured the psychological cost of a civil war that most South Asians ignore. It cut through nationalist posturing and forced readers to confront a real tragedy. That is the purpose of this space. BP is not only a place for endless India–Pakistan sparring. Those fights bring traffic, but they do not deepen understanding.

The blow-up around caste revealed the same problem. The people who claim caste “does not matter” often reveal how central it is to their worldview. When the conversation touched anything sensitive, the same voices who lecture others on “free speech” vanished into a hartal. The moment you discuss caste honestly, you become their enemy.

That was the real trigger; not any one commenter.

The worst part of this episode was the personal abuse I received. One email in particular was dehumanizing in a way that should be unacceptable anywhere, let alone here. The fact that it came from someone inducted onto the blog without proper vetting only made it worse. I was disappointed that this happened at all, and I have made it clear that it will not happen again. Going forward, I alone will approve new authors, aside from Razib, who I see as an ultimate authority. No exceptions.

This is not about ego, control, or insecurity. I am at peace with who I am, what I have built, and where I stand.

This is about responsibility. The person who carries the daily load of the site must also have control over who participates in shaping it. Authority without accountability is chaos; accountability without authority is impossible.

Brown Pundits works only when people argue honestly, write fearlessly, and disagree without turning each other into caricatures. We will get things wrong. We will over-moderate or under-moderate. But the only thing worse than imperfection is paralysis.

Silence is death for a blog. Engagement, messy, uneven, contentious, is life.

BP is alive again. Let’s keep it that way.

Clearing the Augean Stables

November 22, 2025 4 Comments filed under X.T.M

I removed a few disruptive authors from the BP roster recently, primarily because some interactions had crossed into personal abuse. That’s not something I’m willing to absorb or normalise.

What continues to surprise me is how quickly discussions become ideological flashpoints, even when my own approach has consistently been one of congeniality and openness.

That said, the overall atmosphere on the blog already feels lighter and more functional with fewer volatile personalities in the mix. It’s a reminder that BP only works when the space is manageable and not dominated by ego or hostility.

Also to the current Commentariat; stick to the facts, not inflammation please. So reflect on whether your comment is adding more light or heat beforehand.

Brown Pundits